The Obsidian Master
by Ms.Rookroll
Summary: When a curious visitor comes for help, the elements of harmony are wrapped in a new peril. Mystery, adventure and action ensues when the group faces a new enemy which will challenge their own sanity. I know, I know...I suck at making summaries,but I promise the story is better
1. Chapter 1: Crime and Ponishment

Legally Boring:Almost everything belongs to the wonderful Lauren Faust and Hasbro, except for the story of course, and a character or two.

Author's note:Well Hi! I'm new to all of this! This is actually the first mlp fic (and fic overall) that I publish. I hope you enjoy it and bear with me and my craziness. English is not my mother language (saludos desde Colombia!), but I hope I won't let you down. All reviews, ideas, comments critiques and/or questions are encouraged and welcomed, but please be gentle I'm a bit sensible. Well without further ado, I present to you the story!

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The carriage came to an abrupt stop right in front of the golden gates. By now the night was dying down slowly, less than two hours remained for the arrival of the sun, and yet it felt like midnight due to the darkness. The exhausted pegasus did their best to catch their breaths, and with every exhalation the warm air created a brief fog when it met the cold air. Slowly, captain Crossbow descended from his seat making the keys on his arm clink, he usually would give a positive feedback to his soldiers after such an admirable journey with such an admirable speed, but tonight there was no place for those remarks. There was no place for words at all. His impeccable white coat seemed to glitter more than his armor under the moonlight, which gave him an even more gallant look than he already possessed. Without even glancing at the carriage, he approached the guards at the gates. Two grey coated unicorn stallions saluted him firmly.

"Escort the prisoner" the captain commanded and walked back to the carriage.

The two unicorns followed him, waiting for further instructions. Captain Crossbow reached for the set of keys hanging from the golden metal near his chest, and aimed for the door of the coach. Nevertheless he hesitated, and turned to see the unicorns first.

"You do understand the proportions of this, I can count with your complete prudence." It was not a question but a declaration.

"Yes sir." They repeated in perfect unison.

"But, sir, is it really-?" Asked one, overwhelmed by curiosity.

"I can not reveal the identity of the prisoner. Know your place soldier. We don't want to make a bigger scandal out of this. Now answer this, have either of you dealt with prisoners before?"

"No sir." They spoke as one pony.

"Then listen closely: Never take your eyes off the prisoner. Don't speak to the prisoner. Don't listen to the prisoner. And be always alert. Remember it's a criminal we're dealing with. A killer."

One of the unicorns couldn't help to gulp loudly.

"Don't worry, it's a short walk, you'll do fine."

He turned again, not noticing how the unicorns stared fixedly at the window, trying to look past the iron bars. The captain selected one of the keys from the set and opened the door slowly.

"We have arrived. March." He commanded.

The rustling of the shackles echoed across the entire castle as a figure emerged from the interior of the coach. The head of the prisoner was covered with a black sac and a piece of cloth over its waist covered the markings on its flanks. Under the nocturnal sky it was difficult to determine the color of its coat or even its tale.

Each unicorn took a place next to the sentenced pony, as the captain commanded.

"Is the princess expecting us?" He asked walking in front of the three of them.

"Yes, sir." They replied, again in unison.

"Alright." He turned to see the white pegasus tied to the carriage. "You may retire now."

Captain Crossbow turned again, now facing the golden gates.

"Let's get going." He instructed the unicorns without even turning to look at them. The prisoner walked slowly and heavily, partly due to the tight chains clasped around each leg. The unicorns walked at the same speed, to make sure nothing escaped their sight.

"Stop." Captain Crossbow said, staring now at the huge gates.

He looked again at his set of keys, which he still held on his hoof, and selected another key. He placed the key over the lock and turned it twice, then he pulled the immense doors which squealed as they exposed the interior of the palace.

"March." He repeated, waiting near the doors as the three ponies stepped inside.

They waited for him as he closed the doors again and locked it. He placed the keys back at the spot on his armor and stared at the place. He grabbed a torch from the wall to light their way across the dim place and returned to his position, leading the procession.

There was an uneasy silence as they walked on the red carpet across the hall. It was curious how that room seemed so macabre, when at daylight it was one of the most magnificent chambers of the castle. The unicorns watched the prisoner, they watched how it walked clumsily, but without stopping or flinching. They saw its peaceful behavior as the calm before the storm and were preparing themselves for an attack.

Such thing did not happen though.

The walk was as slow as it was excruciating. Even if the courtroom was not far away, as a matter of fact it was in the same wing, the way seemed to stretch infinitely. It was the silence. It was that darn silence what made it so painful. It was the sound of hoofs striking the glassy tiles of the floor and the distant wind howling through the opened windows, without a single word from any pony. Not a single soul seemed to be present at the palace, and light was so scarce that even if there were more ponies around, they were swallowed by the darkness of the night.

So when they reached the wooden doors they were more than relieved, of course they didn't dare to show it.

"Take this." Captain Crossbow gave the torch to one of the soldiers and stepped forward.

He knocked twice on the door, loudly, and then waited. Briefly after, the doors opened showering the place with light from its interior. Two similar unicorn stallions saluted the captain from the interior of the gate as the procession stepped inside. The room had a semicircular shape. Marble tiles shone on the floor, the ceiling had beautiful paintings (which, sadly, couldn't be seen clearly due to its altitude), and at the opposite side of the room were three wooden pedestals, the one in the middle was noticeably taller than the other two. It was here that the princess herself was seated, only discernible from the chest up, light reached her in an odd manner, for half of her face was illuminated while the other half remained in shadows. At her right was her sister, the princess of the night, who had to abandon her duties to attend to the court.

The wooden doors closed again.

"Your majesties" The captain vowed.

"Good evening captain." Celestia replied, her usually calmed voice was now stern.

Captain Crossbow then walked towards the prisoner, who was now standing at the center of the room.

"Thanks for your work, you may retire now." He addressed the guards, who saluted him and vowed to the princesses before leaving the room.

Once they were outside, the captain took away the black sac with a swift movement, exposing the face of the prisoner, whose eyes shut and opened quickly trying to adjust to the burst of light upon them. It was then that princess's eyes became teary, but luckily no pony could notice it due to the lightning.

The princess had to clear her throat before addressing the prisoner.

"Good evening, Twilight Sparkle."


	2. Chapter 2: The Midnight Visit

Her ears were lowered, her purple tail was hidden between her hind legs and she shifted her sight between each princess. She had never felt so little in her entire life. Not even during her school audition, which was turning more and more similar to her current situation.

"Your majesties" She vowed, trying to head the nervous attack that was slowly emerging within her. She needed to explain everything, will they believe?

"This isn't what it looks like" She blurted out.

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About a month ago…

_The land was awfully familiar, and yet awfully unknown. For a second she was completely sure it was a road crossing the Everfree forest. Nevertheless, as she kept walking, the place was getting darker and the vegetation was certainly different. As a matter of fact, the foliage surrounding the dirt road was very peculiar, she had never seen plants like this before. There was a crooked tree whose bark made two perfect loops which were covered by strange fungi of a bright blue shade. At first she enjoyed the sight of it, it was a whole treat for the eyes, but as she kept moving the plants became more and more scarce. Eventually she was no longer in a forest (leaving her questioning if it was really the Everfree forest what she had crossed, for she didn't remember it being so short), she was now standing on a desert-like patch of land. There was no sand, instead she was surrounded by miles and miles of arid soil where only a faint layer of green weed grew. There were no cactuses either, not even rocks, just patches of never ending dirt. She kept walking, though cautiously now. And without further notice she reached the end of road. She wasn't sure it was really the end, for the dirt path simply blended into the soil and merged with the rest of the place. She wasn't sure of what was next now, and she didn't have much time to figure it, for something caught her attention. _

_A shadow circling around her made her look up. A bird was flying majestically slightly above her head. She watched as the bird fluttered its black wings slowly and landed at a side. It was a raven. The bird stared at her for a second, twitching its head slightly. _

"_Hello little buddy" She said walking towards the bird._

_In return the animal opened its black beak and emitted a sharp shriek, which made her leap and step backwards. The sound of wings fluttering was next, and soon dozens of ravens began to land on the ground, encompassing her. The shriek was gone, but now she froze, finding herself completely surrounded by the animals. They began to come closer and closer, and some even dared to fly and pull a hair or two of her mane. _

"_Shoo! Shoo!" She exclaimed waving her hoofs to scare the birds, which only made them angrier. They kept flying towards her and pulling her hairs until plucking them out, and one of them even darted towards her face nearly managing to scratch her left cheek. She was about to run away, when she heard a distant sound. It was low and it made the entire ground vibrate, but she was only able to understand what it was when it repeated itself. It was a bark. Shooing some ravens with her hoofs, she turned around and noticed that, at the distance, an animal was rushing towards her. It was safe to presume that it was dog. And she was right, in a matter of seconds a huge canine figure emerged. The dog ran towards her, parting the sea of ravens as it moved. It was a male Great Dane of light brown pelt, pointy triangular ears and skinny legs. The dog barked once more, this time it was loud enough to make all the ravens fly away. The canine kept running, now with his pink tongue sticking out and his tail wagging. When he finally arrived he greeted her joyfully, he lifted his front legs and placed them on her. The action, though friendly, made her loose her balance and fall backwards. _

The thud was big enough to shake Spike's little bed. The baby dragon looked around, only catching a glimpse of the dark library. He rubbed his eyes and eventually he managed to see his friend Twilight Sparkle on the floor next to her bed. The purple unicorn was lying on her back, half wrapped by a blanket that had slipped from the bed as well.

"Twilight, are you alright?" He asked as he tossed the sheets of his bed to stand up.

"I'm fine Spike, thanks" She said slowly, turning around. Her back was slightly bruised and she was a bit stirred, but further than that there was nothing wrong. She stood up slowly while Spike walked towards her.

"So you heard them too? " He asked helping her to take the blanket away.

"Hear what?" She asked.

Three hard knockings on the door answered her question.

"That's odd." She said exchanging a concerned look with the purple dragon.

"Who could it be this late?" She asked. Her horn began to emanate a glow, just bright enough to lead their way to the door.

"Maybe it's Fluttershy" Spike said as they carefully descended down the stairs. It was a good theory, every now and then, Fluttershy came by to spend the night at the library after seeing a creature wandering near her cottage. The tranquility of the town's outskirts had its price. But usually she came earlier, around eight or nine. But now it was, what time it was? Twilight glanced at the clock near one of the walls, it was almost one of the morning. By the time they arrived to the first floor the knockings were almost continuous and getting louder and louder. She could see the wooden door tremble with each knock.

"That's definitely not Fluttershy" Twilight said without taking her eyes from the shaking wood.

Spike shook his head.

"Open up! Please open up!" A voice, though muffled slightly, was clear. It was a female voice, which was familiar somehow. But Twilight wasn't sure whose it could be, it was certainly not one of her friends. Nevertheless the urgency that impregnated each syllable forced her to rush towards the door and open it quickly.

She found a pony garbed with a dark brown cloak, which covered half of her legs and almost her entire face, just exposing the tip of her nose. It reminded Twilight of Zecora and she would assume it was the zebra if the legs of the visitor were not deep-sky blue. Before she could speak, the intruder literally pushed her and made her way into the library.

"Excuse me, how can I help you?" Twilight spoke, closing the door. Spike was next to her, eyeing the stranger cautiously.

The mysterious visitor slid her cloak down, revealing a whitish mane with light blue streaks and two lilac eyes.

"Trixie?" Both, Twilight and Spike gasped.

"What are _you _doing here?" Spike said, narrowing his eyes.

She glanced at the floor, shifted her weight and looked from side to side before raising her gaze again.

"I will only say this once… so you better listen, Twilight Sparkle" She stared back at her hoofs.

"I-I need your help"

Twilight's eyes widened slightly, was she still dreaming?

"How dare you come here and simply ask for her help?" Spike said crossing his arms.

"Spike, maybe this is serious." Twilight said, then she stared right into the other unicorn's eyes. "It better be."

"Don't you think I'm pretty desperate if I came here?" She replied.

"Alright, why don't you take a seat, I guess…" Twilight said and the three walked further into the library.

"Seat here, in the floor? Don't you have a cushion, perhaps?"

"Why? Can't your great and powerful butt touch the ground?" Spike replied.

"Spike!" Twilight scolded, holding back a chuckle. "Could you please go to turn on the lights?"

"Fine!" And the baby dragon walked away mumbling something between his teeth.

Now alone, both unicorns sat on the wooden floor. The lights flickered and soon the place was bathed in light. Illuminated, Trixie's face looked quite different, quite worn down.

"So…" Twilight cued.

"Trixie doesn't know how to explain this mishap, but she'll do her best." The deep-sky blue mare said and lifted part of her cloak, exposing a light blue backpack with a dark blue mark depicting a crescent and a star tipped wand. She opened it and after a while of browsing she took out a small book. It was completely black, the pages were brown and deteriorated and on the cover there were strange markings in silver.

"After our last encounter, I set myself to a new task: practice and learn magic, longing for the day I, the great and powerful Trixie, would outshine you. It was then that I stumbled with a vast array of books, including this one."

She slid the book until it reached Twilight's hoof. The book worm had never seen such an issue before, it caught her attention immediately. She eyed the title carefully, trying to figure out what language or dialect did the markings belong to.

"Runes?" She asked, raising the book and carefully browsing through the pages.

"Yes, the whole thing is written using them. I translated some chapters"

"Did you, really?"

"Alright maybe _I _didn't translate them myself, but I paid someone to."

"Where did you find this?" Twilight inquired without taking her eyes from the enigmatic book.

"It was in the attic of my old house. But-"

"This is unique! I had never seen a book like this, I bet it is from the golden times, maybe earlier."

"Yeah well the issue is-"

"I mean look at these illustrations! I don't know much about runes, but I would love to try to decipher this, just imagine all the secrets, all the knowledge!"

"TWILIGHT! Would you be kind and shut your pie hole!"

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you were saying…" She closed the book and stared at the unicorn.

"I was practicing some spells with it, and I fear I might have…" She whispered, "_unleashed_ something."

"Like what?" Spike's voice made both ponies turn to look at the corner of the room.

"I'm not sure" Trixie replied while Spike walked towards them.

"But what makes you think that?" Twilight asked. Spike took a seat next to her and listened carefully.

"Well as I told you, one night I was practicing, and I found a chant near one of the last chapters. It was the only thing that was not written in those obnoxious runes, so I repeated it, just for the sake of it. Ever since that night weird things have occurred."

"Things like what?" Twilight asked.

"Well I heard noises in the night, then some animals appeared dead in town and, this might sound silly, but I feel something's always watching me. Lurking in the night, just waiting…"

For the first time Twilight Sparkle knew that the blue unicorn was being sincere.

"Does the book say something about the chant?"

"No. Well, yes. But, again, it's written in runes."

"And didn't you ask the translator to help you?"

"Pfft I'm pretty sure he was a scam, he couldn't do much with it, can you believe these people?"

"Yeah, unbelievable…" Twilight rolled her eyes, making Spike giggle. "Well I'll take a look, but I doubt I can translate it. I can look for books to help us, I have a couple of volumes about ancient languages. And Spike, do you know where was that one book that talked about chants?"

"Yea I think it's next to the one about divination, but" A yawn escaped from the dragon, "can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"I'll have to agree with the dragon here, I'm absolutely exhausted." Trixie added.

"Oh sure, we'll figure this out tomorrow morning."


End file.
